Euro area current account surplus rises in December, declines for 2025

The current account of the euro area recorded a surplus of €15 billion in December 2025, an increase of €6 billion from the previous month.

This monthly surplus was driven by goods (€20 billion) and services (€14 billion), partially offset by deficits in secondary income (€16 billion) and primary income (€4 billion).

For the full year 2025, the current account surplus amounted to €255 billion, representing 1.6 percent of euro area GDP.

This marks a significant decrease from the €407 billion surplus (2.7 percent of GDP) recorded in 2024. The annual decline was primarily due to a switch from a primary income surplus (€41 billion) to a deficit (€62 billion), and a reduction in the services surplus from €178 billion to €135 billion.

A larger deficit for secondary income, increasing from €173 billion to €186 billion, also contributed.

These negative developments were partly mitigated by a larger surplus for goods, which rose from €361 billion to €369 billion.

In the financial account for 2025, euro area residents increased net direct investments in non-euro area assets to €178 billion, while non-residents recorded net disinvestments of €5 billion from euro area assets.

Residents' net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €767 billion, and non-residents' net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities amounted to €838 billion.

In other investment, euro area residents recorded net acquisitions of non-euro area assets of €671 billion.

The net external assets of euro area monetary financial institutions (MFIs) increased by €211 billion in 2025. The Eurosystem's stock of reserve assets also rose to €1,776.1 billion in December 2025, primarily due to positive price changes.